Worth: $16.00
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Cast:
Matteus Lunot, Zion Matheson, Harlow Joy, Miyoko Anderson, Krista Morin, Trevor Hayes, Karl Campbell, Kiley May
Intro:
Soft gives its characters space to experience agony, but also ecstasy, and in that, it is an important coming-of-age story for queer kids.
Canadian non-binary writer/director Joseph Amenta’s debut feature Soft explores the lives of three queer tweens over one summer in Toronto as they experience the exuberance of youth and the terrors of adulthood.
Julien (Matteus Lunot) is a genderqueer kid who has been rejected by his Pinoy mother. He lives with the tender transwoman Dawn (Miyoko Anderson), who acts as a surrogate parent for him and his friends Tony (Zion Matheson), and Otis (Harlow Joy). The three teens are ride or die friends until a terrible event tests their loyalty and their individual places in the world.
Amenta begins Soft (originally titled Pussy) with the three daring each other to try out things like smoking and tasting a flavoured condom. They are curious and rebellious, and under the spell of the seemingly dominant Julien. They wander the streets of Toronto causing mischief and try to get into a local LGBTQ+ club. Julien wears his dyed hair and plastic hairclips as a badge of liberation. He also wears a bruise on his eye that he’s less willing to discuss.
Dawn is gentle but also takes little nonsense from Julien. She has opened her home to him partly as a way to heal her own fractured youth. At the age of thirteen, she too was on the streets or hiding her identity in a refuge home for cis gay boys. She’s especially encouraging of Tony, who it seems has the only supportive parent in the mix. Otis is living a closeted life with his religious father. Otis’ sense of freedom comes from following Julien’s devil may care attitude.
Dawn is struggling to pay the rent. She is a sex worker but that isn’t bringing in enough to cover the cost of living for herself and Julien. She talks to Julien about one day being able to afford to go outside the city and build a bonfire, a way to connect with nature and beauty that has not been afforded to either of them. One night, Dawn doesn’t come home – and Julien who is already living in a world that is perhaps too adult for him (being homeless) – which thrusts him into crisis mode.
Amenta creates a dizzying world for the young people that is laden with external threats. When Julien finally sneaks into the nightclub he has been obsessed with, a much older man looks at him like he’s fair sexual game. Otis can’t come out to his father and is dealing with the eventuality that his sexuality will come between them. Tony hears catcalls which could also be taunts. Amenta acknowledges that their friendship bubble is a safe space despite the inevitable breakdown which occurs as Julien involves Tony and Otis in his desperate search for Dawn.
Queer people, especially trans people and youth often live on the periphery of society. Finding joy in community is often their only solace in a world that is openly hostile to them. Julien’s rebellion comes from a place of anger as much as it does from the love of his friends. His anger is destructive but well earned. When he externalises it and attacks the only people who love him, he risks being truly alone.
Narratively, Amenta backs Julien into a corner. The final scene around a bonfire which represents the solidification of the love shared between the three friends is utterly joyous but doesn’t solve any of the core issues Julien is going to face as a homeless queer kid, who can’t trust any form of authority to help him.
Amenta’s cast is transcendently fierce and beautifully nuanced. Matteus Lunot brings Julien to life with all his fears and pain, but also with his bravery. Similarly, Zion Matheson and Harlow Joy give brilliant performances as the kids trying to find their place in the world.
Soft may lack narrative resolution, but it doesn’t lack authentic representation. There are echoes of Sean Baker and Larry Clark, but Amenta’s world is their own. It is undeniably a well-directed work and Liam Higgins’ cinematography encapsulates the frenetic nature of the script (which was also edited by Miyoko Anderson). There are moments of heightened reality, but the film also has the hallmarks of cinema verité. Amenta favours grit and bite in Soft but never forgets to allow a form of bliss and happiness for his young characters as they share their authentic selves with each other. Soft gives its characters space to experience agony, but also ecstasy, and in that, it is an important coming-of-age story for queer kids.